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2017 – Year of Destiny?

It has come to my attention just how many important anniversaries and special events are happening in 2017.

In Israel, the new year begins in the Autumn of 2016, so there’s a overlap time-period of 2016/2017 that has so many important anniversaries of political and religious events. Can this all be pure coincidence without any meaning? Or is it the start of something new? I wonder!

But when is the biblical New Year?Interesting article here! Included is the observation that the first day of the seventh month is only designated for a “loud noise”, often associated with the trumpet but also a “shout”. This is the only festival not specifically explained as to its purpose and meaning. Does this remind you of the references to the rapture of the Church?

Also, as an unimportant little sidenote, The 2016 United States elections will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. Rosh Hashanah begins with the Day of Trumpets a short while earlier, at sundown on Sun, 02 October 2016. Will America start the Jewish New Year with a Trump?

I am not date-setting, nor do I pretend to know what will actually happen in 2017. All I know is that there are so many seeming convergences that it must have some kind of meaning, since God is the God of History! But read the following and pray about it, and decide for yourself.

Important Intervals

49/50 years = Jubilee, rest, change in ownership etc.

40 years = time of testing

7 years = one complete cycle of time (also 7 ages, or periods of time as in Daniel.)

70 years = prophetic completion (also captivity ended)

70 years + 10 years = extent of man’s modern life (Psalm 90)

120 years = God’s post-flood limitation on man’s life (Genesis)

Also in the world, there are also significant time periods that apply more to mankind than to spiritual things, such as:

10 years = a completion, a decade

50 years = a lifetime anniversary, half-century

100 years = a century, an important recurrence

1000 years = an era, a millennium

(and so on)

Whether or not you consider 2017 an important year, it is a matter of fact that many events have their anniversary at that time.

Kansas Betrayal Redux

In 2017, the Charismatic churches are going to commemorate one of the pivotal moments in the history of the Church, a kind of unpicking of the Reformation that took place 500 years earlier. It is called “2017 in Kansas, United in Christ“. The website advertising this meeting is proudly saying that 2017 is “A significant year; marking…”:

• The 50th anniversary of the Charismatic Catholic Renewal
• The 50th anniversary of Jerusalem becoming united under Israeli administration
• The 40th Anniversary of Kansas City 1 (KC1), a pan-denominational stadium event
• The 500 year anniversary of the Reformation

The 1977 Kansas meeting was a successful attempt by the Catholic Charismatics (a contradiction of terms in my belief) to muscle in on the then ongoing Charismatic Renewal.

With Cardinal Suenens as the papal liaison, the 1977 Kansas City Conference on Charismatic Renewal, ” was the largest and most inclusive ecumenical assembly in the history of American Christianity.” Almost half of the participants were Roman Catholics. This new body of Charismatics were not separatists, but rather reformist in character.

According to Dave Hunt, the guiding hand behind the Charismatic movement, who likewise used it to further Rome’s ecumenical aims, was Cardinal Leon Joseph Suenens. He was a recipient of the ecumenical Templeton Award for Progress in Religion in 1976, and was given a special mandate to oversee the worldwide charismatic “renewal movement” in the Catholic Church, an assignment that was reconfirmed by John Paul II.

The Cardinal was influential in the General Council formed in the early 1970s by Shepherding and Protestant/Catholic charismatic leaders. It was at the General Council when Cardinal Suenens provided a blueprint plan for an alternative agenda.[3] He believed that once there was communion in the spirit, there would eventually be physical unity. [4] The Council then began to guide the ecumenical charismatic movement for years from behind the scenes. The minutes for its May-June, 1977 meeting reveal that a “covenant relationship” was entered into with Cardinal Suenens, which included the following:

“We, as a Council, are committing ourselves to work together with the Cardinal for the restoration and unity of Christian people and world evangelization in projects to be mutually agreed upon. In each project, headship, authority and method of functions will be mutually determined by the Cardinal and the Council in the light of the requirements of each situation.”

This, then, is the event to be commemorated and renewed with even great fervour by current Charismatics intent on world domination. Surely 2017 is a year of significance! (Is it pure coincidence that Kansas is one of the places that will witness a TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN in August 2017? )

Rome, too, is celebrating a Golden Anniversary, that of the so-called Charismatic Renewal of the Catholic Church in 1967. The “Catholic Charismatic Renewal Golden Jubilee” event in 2017 will begin on May 31 and celebrations will continue until Pentecost Mass on June 4. (For more information see here).

Church of Rome and Lutherans – Reformation Redux?

On their website, vatican.va, there is an article called From Conflict to Communion, written together with Lutherans, talking about how they plan to unite. 4

The Catholic Church and Lutheran Church signed a Joint declaration on the doctrine of justification, in 1999, and this is an attempt to narrow the theological divide between the two faiths. 5 It is important to note that Luther did not only discover justification by faith, as the discussion seems to be about – there were 95 thesis.

[The report states] “The awareness is dawning on Lutherans and Catholics that the struggle of the sixteenth century is over. The reasons for mutually condemning each other’s faith have fallen by the wayside. Thus, Lutherans and Catholics identify five imperatives as they commemorate 2017 together.”

“In 2017, we must confess openly that we have been guilty before Christ of damaging the unity of the church. This commemorative year presents us with two challenges: the purification and healing of memories, and the restoration of Christian unity in accordance with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ (Eph 4:4–6).”

They also invite all Christians to study this report open-mindedly and critically, and to come along “the way to a deeper communion of all Christians.” 4

It is clear that 2017 marks an interesting year for the Catholic Church. First of all the Catholics will commemorate the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. Secondly, it marks fifty years of Lutheran–Roman Catholic dialogue. 4

Significant Anniversary Dates Through History

When we cast the net even wider, there are historic anniversaries and events in the Church and world that also resonate down the centuries.

2017 minus 2000 years
17 AD According to the book “Ancient Historiography and its Contexts: Studies in Honour of A. J. Woodman” (by Christina S. Kraus, John Marincola, and Christopher Pelling) a devastating earthquake that overthrew twelve cities including Sardis happened in the year 17 AD. Also Pliny, the ancient historian, refers to the greatest earthquake in world history occurring this year. Some also believe it was a Jubilee year, although it is nearly impossible to know for certain.

2017 minus 1,980 years
37 AD Caligula proclaimed Roman Emperor; he declares himself god. An earthquake destroys Antioch. Also the birth of Nero [15 December AD 37] who is considered to be a type of the Antichrist and is possibly the first referred to in Revelation by the number 666.

2017 minus 1,950 years
67 AD. First great Christian persecution; Jewish Revolt and Massacres. Christians abandon Jerusalem and flee to Pella. Possible martyrdom of Peter and Paul in Rome. [Source] The COMET mentioned by Josephus that heralded this destruction was observed by the Chinese 66-67 AD. [David Seargent (The Greatest Comets in History, 2009, pg. 34] It appeared at the time Emperor Nero (54-68 AD) ordered the executions of saints Peter and Paul. Brewster dated this to 29 June 67 AD.

2017 minus 1,850 years
167 AD The Second Era of Church History begins; Christianity becomes illegal. (100 years after the first persecution) [Source] “Persecution broke out with great violence, such as had never been before. Christianity was now treated as a direct crime against the State.” [Source]

2017 minus 1,650 years
367 AD Nicene Christianity for the first time became dominant throughout the empire. (Heresies curtailed) Emperor Gratian issued a coin with the inscription “Gloria Novi Saeculi”. (The “Glory of the New Age”)

2017 minus 1300 years717 AD Constantinople falls to the Arabs. The Arab siege of Constantinople in 717–718 was a combined land and sea offensive by the Muslim Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate against the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. The campaign marked the culmination of twenty years of attacks and progressive Arab occupation of the Byzantine borderlands.

2017 minus 1000 years1017 The founding of the Druze religion. (The Druze beliefs are a mixture of Islam and Greek/Hindu philosophies). Also, Canute the Great was acclaimed king of England.

2017 minus 830 years1187 The Siege of Jerusalem. Muslim ruler Saladin slaughters Christians and takes Jerusalem. The end of the first Kingdom of Jerusalem.

2017 minus 700 years1315-1317 The Great Famine of Europe. Millions of deaths; the end of growth and prosperity from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. The crisis had consequences for the Church, state, European society, and for future calamities to follow in the fourteenth century.

2017 minus 670 years1347 The Black Death: 75 to 200 million people died between 1346–53. In 1347 the so-called “Plague Comet” appeared that “heralded pestilence from Asia all the way to Britain, which lasted for three years. And death carried away a great many.” [Stanislaw Lubienietz (Theatrum Cometicum, 1668)]

2017 minus 600 years1417 July 27 – Avignon Pope Benedict XIII is deposed, bringing to an end the Great East-West Schism. (Western Church Reunited). From the election of Pope Martin V of the Council of Constance in 1417 to the Reformation 100 years later in 1517, Western Christianity was “largely free from schism as well as significant disputed papal claimants”.

2017 minus 500 years1517 Reformation – Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the door of Wittenburg Cathedral, in protest at the Catholic doctrine of indulgences and formally begins the Protestant Reformation.

These events, by no means exhaustive, seem – as I said – to resonate with frequent intervals to the year 2017, in addition to the more relevant intervals in the history of Israel as listed previously. The Church seems to experience either persecution or a move towards “unity”; destruction seems to arrive from the advance of Islam, and the world seems to experience death on a scale we can hardly imagine, from plague, famine and epidemics.

Significantly, the tide turned away from papal corruption towards biblical Christianity on the 500th anniversary of 2017, when Luther challenged Rome head-on in Germany in 1517. And from 1897 the tide turned for Israel as a nation.

Celestial Signs in 2017

Some have pointed out that at the time of Rosh Hashanah (22nd September 2017) there is [according to their studies] a “rare astronomical alignment” that suggests the situation described in Revelation 12, the sun-clothed woman. See the graphic below. [Source]

However, I treat all these discussions as speculative until we get further light from the Lord on ALL these signs, biblical or otherwise. I have a kind of “possibility drawer” where these discussions get filed. As far as this alignment I’m not sure it’s particularly rare or significant and I only mention it for interest.

There is also, as it happens, a total eclipse of the sun over America in 2017:

“August 21 2017 – Total Solar Eclipse. A rare, once-in-a-lifetime event for viewers in the United States. The last total solar eclipse visible in the continental United States occurred in 1979 and the next one will not take place until 2024. The path of totality will begin in the Pacific Ocean and travel through the center of the United States. The total eclipse will be visible in parts of Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina before ending in the Atlantic Ocean. A partial eclipse will be visible in most of North America and parts of northern South America”. (NASA Map and Eclipse Information | Detailed Zoomable Map of Eclipse Path)

So, there do seem to be indications that 2017 will be the endpoint of many historical events. Might it also be the start-point of further, more dramatic, world events?

What will the landmark year of 2017 bring? We’ll have to wait and see!